Posted
by
timothyon Thursday May 15, 2014 @05:17PM
from the computer-says-no dept.

redletterdave (2493036) writes "When my best friend upgraded from an iPhone 4S to a Galaxy S4, I texted her hello. Unfortunately, she didn't get that text, nor any of the five I sent in the following three days. My iPhone didn't realize she was now an Android user and sent all my texts via iMessage. It wasn't until she called me about going to brunch that I realized she wasn't getting my text messages. What I thought was just a minor bug is actually a much larger problem. One that, apparently, Apple has no idea how to fix. Apple said the company is aware of the situation, but it's not sure how to solve it. One Apple support person said: 'This is a problem a lot of people are facing. The engineering team is working on it but is apparently clueless as to how to fix it. There are no reliable solutions right now — for some people the standard fixes work immediately; many others are in my boat.'"

My experience is that if an iPhone is unable to send an iMessage (shows as blue), it automatically falls back to text message after 5 minutes (shows as green). After a few of these in a row, it defaults to text message until the iMessage connection can be re-established with the other endpoint.
(Of course, this option can be turned off if you prefer to use only iMessages, at which point it's not going to be allowed it to fall back.)

Single person has annoying but minor problem texting random social contact, assumes huge conspiracy and general incompetenceâ¦

What I thought was just a minor bug is actually a much larger problem. One that, apparently, Apple has no idea how to fix. Apple said the company is aware of the situation, but it's not sure how to solve it. One Apple support person said: 'This is a problem a lot of people are facing. The engineering team is working on it but is apparently clueless as to how to fix it. There are no reliable solutions right now â" for some people the standard fixes work immediately; many others are in my boat

Interesting that the "story" - such that it is - contains no links to substantiate such a huge issue. People, what some low-level help desk monkey tells you about "the engineering team" can probably be ignored, and assumed to be something they fall back on when they have no real answer for your isolated edge issue.